1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser treatment apparatus used for performing treatment on a treatment part (an affected part) of a patient""s eye by irradiating the treatment part with a laser beam for treatment.
2. Description of Related Art
Many laser treatment apparatuses for use in a photocoagulation treatment or the like have a manipulator for moving a reflection mirror which reflects a laser beam for treatment toward a part to be treated (an affected part) of a patient""s eye, i.e., for changing an inclination angle of the reflection mirror. The manipulator is provided in order to allow fine adjustment during alignment of an irradiation point of the treatment laser beam to the treatment part. In a treatment such as panretinal photocoagulation in which the treatment laser beam is irradiated a large number of times to form many photocoagulation spots, a repeat function of periodically irradiating a treatment laser beam while a trigger switch is being pressed is frequently used. This repeat function can be combined with movement (change) of an irradiation point by the manipulator, thereby successively treating a wide area.
However, if laser irradiation is performed during movement of the reflection mirror due to for example the operation of the manipulator at erroneous timings, coagulation spots would be formed in nonuniform shapes and at uneven coagulation density. Consequently, the laser irradiation could not be appropriately executed.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has an object to overcome the above problems and to provide a laser treatment apparatus capable of appropriately performing laser irradiation to allow a satisfactory treatment.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the purpose of the invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus used for performing treatment on a treatment part of a patient""s eye by irradiating the treatment part with a laser beam for treatment, the apparatus including: a treatment beam irradiation optical system for irradiating the treatment beam, the system including a mirror which reflects the treatment beam toward the treatment part; mirror moving means for moving the mirror to change a point to be irradiated by the treatment beam; and detection means for detecting motion of the mirror.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus used for performing treatment on a treatment part of a patient""s eye by irradiating the treatment part with a laser beam for treatment, the apparatus including: a treatment beam irradiation optical system including a mirror which reflects the treatment beam toward the treatment part; a mirror moving mechanism for changing an inclination angle or an arrangement position of the mirror, the moving mechanism including an operation lever; and a sensor for detecting motion of the operation lever.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a laser treatment apparatus used for performing treatment on a treatment part of a patient""s eye by irradiating the treatment part with a laser beam for treatment, the apparatus including: a treatment beam irradiation optical system for irradiating the treatment beam, the system including a mirror which reflects the treatment beam toward the treatment part; an aiming beam irradiation optical system, having an optical axis in a predetermined relation to an optical axis of the treatment beam irradiation optical system, for irradiating an aiming beam by reflecting the aiming beam toward the treatment part by the mirror of the treatment beam irradiation optical system; a mirror moving mechanism for changing an inclination angle or an arrangement position of the mirror; an image pickup device for picking up an image of the treatment part; and a detection unit for detecting motion of the mirror by processing the picked-up image to detect shifting of a point to be irradiated by the aiming beam.